In RuneScape, to try and prevent people from using programs to play characters automatically for them, Jagex programmed in special events that would happen randomly and you would have to interact with, to avoid an awkward consequence. The consequence could be you die due to not paying attention or you could be teleported somewhere.

Every skill has events associated with it. Some events are specific to a certain skill, others can appear during any. Several of the random events are monsters who you can fight. All NPC's who try to attack you. You can run away from to get rid of the NPC except the drunken dwarf. The level the monster appears to you depends on your combat level. It wouldn't be fair for a level 3 to have to fight a level 159. Here's a list of what group of levels gets what level of monster:

Level 159 for the Highest Levels (Level 91+)

Level 120 for High Levels (Level 61-90)

Level 79 for Medium-High Levels (Level 41-60)

Level 49 for Medium Levels (Level 21-40)

Level 29 for Medium-Low Levels (Level 11-20)

Level 14 for Low Levels (Level 3-10)

Please note that the item rewards for random events will appear in your inventory when the event is complete. If you have a full inventory, the reward will appear on the ground.

2.0 - Non-Skill Specific Events

Beekeeper

While collecting flax in the field south of Seers' Village, you may be approached by a Beekeeper from the field next door. It seems that they're having a spot of trouble assembling their beehives, so they need to enlist the help of an adventurer. To assemble the beehive from its four parts, simply click a part and it will stop spinning, then use one of the four on-screen arrows to place it into position over the correct one of the on-screen segments. Click the next piece of the beehive, and the last piece will begin spinning again, ignore this and redo the procedure with the next piece of the beehive. Once finished with all four pieces, hit the switch in the middle of the bottom of the screen and the beehive will be assembled. If you assembled it correctly, you will be awarded with some flax and returned to your previous location. If you assembled it incorrectly, you will be attacked by a swarm of bees and will escape to a random body of water.

Cap'n Hand

If you speak with Cap'n Hand when he appears, he can give you 120gp, 160gp, 40gp, a kebab or a spinach roll, a cosmic talisman, various uncut gems or even a half key.

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

In this event, Dr. Jekyll asks for your help in making a potion to keep him from transforming into Mr. Hyde. He probably will ask for a herb of some sort. If you speak to Dr. Jekyll before he transforms into Mr. Hyde you can get: strength potions, super energy potions, defense potions, super restore potions, agility potions, super attack potions. If you kill Mr. Hyde, he can drop stat restore potions, strength potions, energy potions. Don't worry if you don't have the herb Dr. Jekyll wants, as long as you speak to him he won't turn into Mr. Hyde on you.

Drill Demon

The drill demon is a army-like demon who takes you to his training camp and makes you do a series of exercises then lets you go with a reward of a piece of camouflage clothing. The exercises you need to complete are sit-ups, jogging on the spot, push ups and star jumps.

Drunken Dwarf

This drunken dwarf originated in Keldagrim, and has been drunk off his feet for well over a year; giving away millions of beers and kebabs to random players. When he appears, he'll shout at you in a drunken rage to try and get you to talk to him. Speak to him to receive a kebab and a beer. If you ignore him, he'll start pelting rocks at you which deal about one or two hitpoints; there is no way to attack him back, and he can take you down to about 20% of your base hit points level.

Evil Bob

Evil Bob takes you to a backwards version of RuneScape called ScapeRune. Once you get there you need to find a way to escape. You need to obtain a small fishing net and fish in the location the servant tells you to. Fish a weird fish then 'uncook' it on the fire and give the fish to Bob. Repeat speaking to the slaves, and giving bob the raw fish until Bob falls asleep. You can then escape through the portal. The reward for completing this event is a small amount of exp in a skill. A word of warning regarding this random: Seems Evil Bob has 85 magic and dislikes being evaded via teleport and will teleblock you for a long time.

Evil Chicken

This fowl beast uses a magical water attack against you. If you decide to kill him, he'll drop a fairly large amount of feathers, an egg, raw chicken and bones. Beware his combat level is slightly different and the levels you get him at may vary a bit from the regular random event you fight. This is a amusing event to watch as the chicken trash talks the person he is attacking.

Freaky Forester

The freaky forester is a man who can appear, teleport you to a special location, and ask you to kill a certain pheasant for him. If you bring him the correct pheasant carcass, he will reward you. The reward can be: Lederhosen Hat, Lederhosen Top, Lederhosen Shorts.

Frog Prince and Princess

One day when you're just wandering around RuneScape doing your daily activities, you may come across a parade of frogs who wish to speak with you. Find the royal frog and kiss him or her, to receive a frog token. If you ignore them, you will be morphed into a frog, and taken away to their cave. You can take your frog token to Thessalia in the Varrock Clothes' store, and trade it from a frog mask, or prince/princess clothing, dependant on your gender.

Genie

When you get a genie, he'll pop in next to you and say "Greetings Mistress/Master (name)". Speak to him and he'll give you a lamp which when you rub it lets you choose a skill to get exp added to. The formula for the amount of xp you get is your level x 10 If you ignore him, he'll scatter your items or teleport you away.

Grab The Evil Twin

Molly wants you to pick her evil twin sister out of the carnival type game by operating a crane to pick up the twin. Beware, as you can only attempt this two times before the crane runs out of power. If you fail to pick the twin up, Molly will be very unhappy and teleport you to a random location. If you successfully pick up the evil twin Molly will reward you with some gems.

Lost and Found Office

This random event is one which you can get while teleporting. When you teleport, there is a chance that something may go wrong with the "teleport matrix". If something does go wrong, you will be sucked into an abyssal vortex, which you have to escape from, or risk dying. To exit, you will need to pull the correct lever. The correct lever is the one that doesn't match the others in the hole. As a reward you will receive a number of runes such as law and air runes. You can also receive Rune Essence as a reward, but only when you use the Rune Essence mine portal.

Miles, Niles and Giles

Miles, Niles and Giles are back! But this time, they're assisting Jagex by catching out players! With the swap from Classic to RuneScape II, their certing business became obsolete - so, they've begun noting peoples' items if they don't respond. If you speak to Miles, Niles, or Giles when they appear, they will give you a simple puzzle, and a reward if you get it right. If you don't answer them, they'll turn items in your inventory into notes. Some of the rewards you can get for speaking to them include uncut gems, gp half keys (rare), and kebabs.

Mysterious Old Man

The mysterious old man has several random events attributed to him. If you ignore him, he will teleport you to the Wizard tower. His gifts include: kebabs, spinach rolls, 20-650gp, any uncut gem, a half key, a cosmic talisman. For the Mime and Maze events however, he will call out "Ahh... *name* you'll do!" and whisk you away. The mysterious old man:

Gives out random items for speaking to him.

Gives out strange boxes that multiply if you try to get rid of them.

Sends you to a Mime performance where you have to copy the head Mime.

Sends you to a big maze that you have to make your way through to get the reward.

Sends you to a pinball game that you need to tag 10 poles to be able to leave.

The strange box is a puzzle the mysterious old man asks you to solve. He spawns next to you, says "Here you go, it's all yours;" you are required to click the box of what shape has a certain number. Answering correctly will result in you getting a reward. The faster you answer, the better the reward. If you do not click on the box to look at the puzzle, the box will duplicate and you will have to solve all the puzzles. Also, if you try to drop the boxes, or alchemy them, they will duplicate.

When the old man appears, he may transport you to a maze where you must get to the center of the maze and touch the 'Strange Shrine'. The faster you get to the shrine, the better your reward will be. You can also open chests along the way for other rewards while on your way to the center

The old man can teleport you to a mime stage where you must guess what emoticon the mime is doing and mimic them. When you complete the routine, you get teleported back to where you were and either get mime clothing or the ability to do a special emote. There are 4 different emotes you can get, and full mime clothing consists of: mime mask, shirt, boots, pants and gloves. After earning each reward, you get 500gp for every mime you complete afterwards

Pinball

In the pinball random event, you need to hit the posts which have the flashing green circles on the bottom. Once you have hit 10 correctly in a row you will be rewarded. If you hit an incorrect pillar your score will be reset and you will have to start over. Also, if you try to leave early the trolls will send you back into the game and reset your score to 0.

Pious Pete

Pious Pete asks you to help keep his candles lit. There is a certain order you need to light the candles in. The order is only light the candles that have not been burnt down totally. For successfully helping him, he will give you a reward which could be an uncut gem, big bones, or some gp.

Prison Pete

This is another event where you get dragged off to a location in ScapeRune. To free yourself and Pete you must pull a lever to see what sort of balloon animal to pop then go pop the balloons until you find the key, give the key to Pete, and continue until all three doors are unlocked. For a reward you can get some gp, noted uncut gems, runes, a kebab, or unidentified herbs.

Quiz Master

When you finish the quiz master's game, you get a choice between a mystery box or 1000gp. Items you can get out of the mystery box include: cabbage, steel plate, bucket, flier, old boot, cut diamond, 20 nature runes, mithril scimitar or 500gp.

Rick Turpentine

This is a wandering highwayman trying to atone for his years of crime by giving you a gift. If you do not speak with him, he will attack you. Some of his gifts include: gp, kebabs, uncut gems and apparently he can also drop a half-key from time to time.

Sandwich Lady

This pink lady when she appears, offers you a snack of a particular type. If you choose the wrong type, she will hit you and teleport you away. If you ignore her she will also hit you and teleport you away. The choices of snacks she can offer you include chocolate bars, kebabs, meat pies, sandwich's and several types of breads.

Security Guard

The Security Guard is a random event which comes along and asks if you've set your recovery questions. If you have he'll give you a reward such as a uncut gem, coins, a half-key, or a spinach roll, if not, he'll probably advise you to set them.

Strange Plant

Strange plants are a members only random event. A plant will start growing out of the ground and a purple fruit will grow on the end of the plant. Pick the fruit or else the plant will attack you and has a chance of poisoning you. The Strange Fruit that you pick off the plant will restore 30% of your energy.

Surprise Exam

The Surprise Exam random event requires you to choose which item comes next in a pattern or belongs in the pattern. You will be asked two questions then when you have correctly answered both, Mr Mordat will tell you which door to exit by. As a reward you will get a book which will give you experience in a skill of your choice.

The experience is a formula of 15 * skill level.

Swarm

A swarm is a group of bees who will attack you hitting 0's and 1's until you run out of range. There is no way to attack them back. Bug spray does not work on them.

When you are fishing, a big fish may pop up out of the water and snatch your fishing equipment. It will then spit it out a little way away from you.

Whirlpool

The fishing spot will turn into a whirlpool and if you continue to fish in it, your fishing equipment gets sucked away. After a whirlpool has disappeared, the fishing spot disappears; but re-appears a few minutes later.

River Troll

A river troll is a monster who spawns next to you while fishing and says "Fishes be mine, leave dem fishies!" then will attack you. If you choose to kill it, it can drop feathers, fishing bait, 5 oysters, caskets, gems or various raw fish.

Moving Fishing Spot

While fishing, the fishing spots will randomly move around so that a person cannot sit in one spot all day.

You can get a rock golem when mining rocks. He'll appear and yell "Rawr! flee human" then try to attack you by throwing rocks at you. Hiding behind the ore rocks will not protect you. Although is you use Protect From Missiles he will be unable to hit you.If you kill him, he can drop any of these items: various ores, various bars, various gems, various pickaxes, earth runes, hammer, Dwarven stout.

Pickaxe Head Detaching

While mining, there is a chance your pickaxe head will fall off and land a few squares away from you. You will need to go pick it up then use the head with the pickaxe handle in your inventory.

Broken Pickaxe

You will receive a broken pickaxe if you mine rocks that are bubbling gas. It's best that you try to avoid them. A spark from your pickaxe will ignite the gas and a explosion will break your pickaxe and cause you anywhere from 1 to 10 damage. To fix your pickaxe, take it to Nurmof in the Dwarven Mines to fix it.

You can get a zombie by burying bones. It spawns and says "Brainssssssss" then proceeds to attack you. If you choose to kill it, it can drop fishing bait, chaos runes, cosmic runes, various amounts and types of bones, key halves, gems, or 5 rune javelins.

Shade

Shades are found when burying bones, and during combat. They will say "Leave this place mortal" then attack you. If you choose to kill a shade, it may drop a shade robe top or shade robe bottom.

Gravedigger

The gravedigger Leo can be obtained by burying bones. He will say that you seem to have some experience with burials and he can use your help. Leo has 5 graves where the coffins have been placed in the wrong graves. He needs you to remove the coffins from the wrong graves and place them into the correct graves. You can figure out what type of person belongs in what grave by examining the headstone, and whose in what coffin by searching it. Then you pick up the coffins and place them in the correct grave. If you do not have room in your inventory, you can use the mausoleum behind Leo to put items in your bank. Put the graves in the correct spot then talk to Leo. He will check them and if they are correct he will give you a reward. You will receive items of Zombie clothing or new Zombie emotes!

While thieving from chests, there is a chance there is a cloud of gas in the chest. The gas will poison you so be sure to have a anti poison pot with you while thieving from chests.

Pillory

The Pillory is a event from thieving. If you get sent to the pillory you're locked in a cage and have to unlock it to get out. While you're in the cage, a NPC will throw rotten tomatoes at you. To unlock the cage, you must match the shape on the lock to one of the spinning keys. Once you have successfully completed this three times you are released. If you do not get it right, the keys will spin faster and another lock on the top will appear at the top.

As a reward you may receive gp, gems, spinach roll, half key or a cosmic talisman.

While cutting logs, there is a chance that the tree you're cutting will turn into a Ent. You cannot cut logs off a Ent, and if you try, the Ent will break your axe. To fix your broken axe, take it to Bob in Lumbridge.

Tree Spirit

A tree spirit is a monster who will spawn and tell you "Leave these woods and never return" then attack you. If you choose to kill a tree spirit, he'll drop various axes, nature runes, bananas, coins, banana seeds, a knife, or cactus seeds.

Birds Nest

With the introduction of farming, a new event was added to the game. While cutting logs, there is a chance a birds nest will fall out of the tree. The nests can contain tree seeds, rings or bird eggs.

4.0 - Removed Random Events

Watchman

The Watchman appeared when thieving, he attacked you and it was possible to attack him back. Luckily, watchman has been removed, so thieving will be less dangerous.

Tangle Vine

The tangle vine random event was one where instead of running away from the vine, you had to stop whatever you were doing and stand still for it to pass. Since the event was buggy and so many people complained about it, the vine was removed from the game.

Dr. Ford

Dr. Ford used to appear when players were mining or woodcutting and hurt themselves. He would ask you how many fingers he's holding up, and if you answered correctly, he would give you any one of these items: lemon, lime, orange, banana, strange fruit, pineapple, pineapple chunks, orange chunks, lime chunks, lemon chunks, lime slices, or lemon slices. If you did not answer correctly he'd send you to a quiet place to recover.

Axe Head Detaching

When cutting trees, there was a chance the axe head would fall off of the handle and fly a few squares away. If this happened, players would pick up the axe head and use it on the axe handle to re-attach it.